Tag Archives: diabetes

Gut bacteria and diabetes: the saga continues

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Bacteria, Genetics, Humans

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Low-temperature electron micrograph of a cluster of E. coli bacteria, magnified 10,000 times. Each individual bacterium is oblong shaped. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Type 2 diabetes is a serious global epidemic, having grown from 30 million cases to nearly 300 million over the past three decades. Although several recent studies have shown a link between type 2 diabetes and our gut bacteria, we’re still only at the dawn of learning about the microbiome. There’s a great deal we don’t yet know, including what kinds of bacteria live in our gut and how they go about making a living there. In a paper published in the September issue of Nature, a team of scientists from China and Denmark used whole genome sequencing technologies to overcome these gaps in our knowledge and get some more clues about the relationship between our gut bacteria and this disease. Continue reading →

Gut bacteria may cause diabetes

13 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Bacteria, Mammals

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Laboratory mouse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)According to a recent study, your chances of developing adult onset diabetes may depend on what kind of bacteria are living in your gut.  It’s been known for some time that type 2 diabetes can be caused by a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors; over the past few years, it’s become clear that these factors somehow interact with the microbiome, but the nature of this interaction and the microbiome’s role in determining susceptibility to diabetes hasn’t been properly explored.  Last year a team of scientists from Brazil published results showing that changes in the community composition could completely reverse the effect of genetic factors.
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